there s very high protection against severe disease. the problem here is that what we re saying to people who are boosted, if you re vaccinated, get boosted, if you re boosted you have great protection. what we re saying is that you are getting these breakthrough infections and the reason you want to avoid that is you don t want to get infected but you also don t want to pass it on to others in the community who may be vulnerable because we still have a huge chunk of people who are still unvaccinated or older and may have waning immunity having not received their boosters yet. how do you explain the hesitancy on getting boosters? is it an issue of people not getting access to the boosters? a lot of people have said it s been hard to try to schedule them and find them booster availability. yeah, alex, it s been multifactorial, as we ve seen throughout this whole pandemic in, terms of what the hurdles are. in some areas i think what you re seeing is the lack of ability to just access
reporter: so, steph, i ve been at vaccination sites last few weeks, and it has been steady, but you said it at the top of the hour. things are changing so rapidly, the fact that we have so many people waiting in these lines, people wanting to see their families for holiday gatherings, it s no doubt that that booster availability and demand is growing. but also keep in mind that here in new york, we do have a higher vaccination rate than other places in the country, steph. lindsey, aaron, dr. osterholm, thank you so much for starting us off this morning. you are making us smarter and safer today. any minute now, trump ally roger stone is expected to arrive on capitol hill for his deposition. he s not expected to say anything, as we get new information about the man behind a powerpoint presentation shared by mark meadows on how to overturn the election. roger stone is showing up to court and it s just going to be a press opportunity. plus, congress excuse me.
booster availability a lot more broadly. so what s your response to today s two decision? well, i think that the fda advisory committee did reach a reasonable middle ground at the end of the day saying that individuals 65 and older and also very importantly those at high risk. i think that was really important because that allows for individualized decision-making because who is to say that somebody who is 42 with diabetes and heart disease, maybe that person is at higher risk than a healthy 65-year-old or individuals living at home with unvaccinated people who are not taking any precautions and that person also has a high-risk medical conditions and allows individuals to make the best decision together with their doctor. overall, the right decision, the fda did come to the right decision. although i do take issue with one thing regarding process. i think it was entirely appropriate for the white house to come out last month with